South Korea fines steel firms for price-fixing

SEOUL--South Korea's antitrust regulator on Sunday levied 291.7 billion won ($272 million) in fines against Posco (005490.SE) and six other steel companies for price fixing.

The steel companies regularly had meetings to collude with each other on prices for cold-rolled steel, galvanized steel and color steel, the Fair Trade Commission said in a statement. The commission said the collusion occurred in the past several years.

The FTC said it will ask prosecutors to look into the case against a group of six steel companies, including Posco, Hyundai HYSCO (010520.SE) and Dongbu Steel Co. (016380.SE).

Posco was slapped with a fine of KRW98.33 billion, the largest of the group. The FTC said the country's top steelmaker joined with others in 2005 to create "zinc surcharge," aimed at passing a surge in zinc prices onto customers.

Posco said they were not involved in price collusion. The company controls more than 60% of the domestic galvanized steel market.

"We will take a legal action to prove we are not guilty," company spokeswoman Han Mi-hyang said.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information. Intraday data
delayed per exchange requirements. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM) from Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real time last sale data provided by NASDAQ. More
information on NASDAQ traded symbols and their current financial status. Intraday
data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. S&P/Dow Jones Indices (SM)
from Dow Jones & Company, Inc. SEHK intraday data is provided by SIX Financial Information and is
at least 60-minutes delayed. All quotes are in local exchange time.